Regulatory Solutions to Prevent the Next Housing Bubble

Regulatory Solutions

The regulatory solution proposed herein is simple, yet far reaching. It comes in two parts, the first is to limit the amount lenders can loan to borrowers with a rather unique enforcement mechanism, and the second is to increase the penalties for borrowers who commit mortgage fraud. The following is not in legalese, but it contains the conceptual framework of potential legislation that could be enacted on the state and/or federal level. A detailed discussion of the text follows:

Loans for the purchase or refinance of residential real estate secured by a mortgage and recorded in the public record are limited by the following parameters based on the borrower’s documented income and general indebtedness and the appraised value of the property at the time of sale or refinance:

1. All payments must be calculated based on a 30-year fixed-rate conventionally-amortizing mortgage regardless of the loan program used. Negative amortization is not permitted.

2. The total debt-to-income ratio for the mortgage loan payment, taxes and insurance cannot exceed 28% of a borrower’s gross income.

3. The total debt-to-income of all debt obligations cannot exceed 36% of a borrower’s gross income.

4. The combined-loan-to-value of mortgage indebtedness cannot exceed 90% of the appraised value of the property or the purchase price, whichever value is smaller except in specially sanctioned government programs.

Any sums loaned in excess of these parameters do not need to be repaid by the borrower and no contractual provision is permitted that can be interpreted as limiting the borrower’s right to exercise this right, make the loan callable or otherwise abridge the mortgage agreement.

This last statement is the most critical. This is how the enforcement problem can be overcome. Regulators are pressured not to enforce laws when times are good, and decried for their lack of oversight when times are bad. If the oversight function becomes a potential civil matter policed by the borrowers themselves, the lenders know exactly what their risks and potential damages are. Any lender foolish enough to make a loan outside of the parameters would not need to fear the wrath of regulators, they would need to fear the civil lawsuits brought by borrowers eager to get out of their contractual obligations. If any borrower could obtain debt forgiveness by simply proving their lender exceeded these guidelines based on the loan documents, no lender would do this, and regulatory oversight would be practically unnecessary. One key to making this work is to prohibit lenders from introducing a “poison pill” to the loan documents that would make borrowers hesitant to bring suit, otherwise lenders would make their loan callable in the event of a legal challenge forcing the borrower to refinance or sell the property. Basically, if the borrower brought suit and won, they would see principal reduction equal to the deviation from the standards, if they brought suit and lost, they would have no penalty. Most of these cases would be decided by summary judgment based on a review of the loan documents thus minimizing court costs.

Another pillar to the system is the documentation of income as part of the loan document package – the “borrower’s documented income” from the proposed legislation. One of the most egregious practices of the Great Housing Bubble was the fabrication of income by borrowers that was facilitated and promoted by originating lenders. Stated-income loan programs were widespread, and they were the cause of much of the uncertainty in the secondary mortgage market during the initial stages of the credit crunch in the deflation of the bubble. Basically, investors had no idea if the borrowers to whom they had lent billions of dollars were capable of paying them back. Without proper documentation of income, investors lost all confidence in the secondary mortgage market. Stated-income loan programs were one of the first casualties of the credit crunch. These programs should be eliminated totally due to the inherent potential for fraud and the undermining of confidence in the secondary mortgage market stated-income loans create. If lenders can be sued based on the content of the loan documents, and if borrowers can be fined or go to jail for committing fraud or misrepresentation on loan documents, both parties have strong incentive to prepare these documents completely and correctly. Originating lenders will argue this adds to their costs and will result in higher application fees. The amount in question is very small, particularly relative to the dollar amount of the transaction. A small amount of additional expense here will provide huge benefits by assuring investors the borrowers to whom they are loaning money really have the income to pay them back. The benefit far outweighs the cost.

If such a law were passed, agency interpretation and court case precedents will end up defining adequacy in loan documentation. A single W2 does not establish a work history, but 2 years worth is probably excessive documentation. One of the most contentious areas will likely be documenting the income of the self-employed. In theory, the self employed must document their incomes to the US government either through Schedule C reports or corporate K-1s. The argument the self-employed have traditionally made is that these documents understate their income. Since many self employed take questionable tax deductions, there is probably some truth to the claim that tax records understate their income; however, why should the self-employed get to have both benefits? If the self-employed had to use their tax returns as loan documentation, they probably would not be quite so aggressive in taking deductions. A new business without a tax return or with only one year of taxable receipts probably is not stable enough to meet standards of income necessary to assume a long-term debt.

The poor quality of loan documentation during the bubble was a mistake of originating lenders; therefore, in this proposal much of the burden of paperwork and liability for mistakes falls on the lenders. During the deflation of the bubble, lenders paid an enormous price for some of their lax paperwork standards, but much of the problem was also due to borrowers misrepresenting themselves in the loan documents. There were instances where lenders encouraged this behavior, but in the majority of cases, the document fraud was perpetrated by the borrowers. The only recourse available to a lender is a civil suit as there are few criminal penalties associated with loan documentation and almost no enforcement. It can be very difficult and costly for lenders to pursue civil damages, and few lenders attempt it even when they have a strong case. To create a more balanced set of responsibilities, the borrowers must face criminal penalties for fraud and misrepresentation on loan documents. If borrowers know the lender can turn documents over to a prosecutor who will charge the borrower with a crime if they make false material statements, borrowers will be much less likely to commit these acts.

The parameters of the forming limitations on the debt-to-income ratio and combined-loan-to-value are essential to prevent bubbles in the housing market and to prevent the banking system from becoming imperiled in the future. People will commit large percentages of their income to house payments when prices are rising quickly; however, they do this out of fear of being “priced out” and greed to make a windfall from appreciation. These are the beliefs that inflate a bubble. Borrowers cannot sustain payments above the traditional parameters for debt service without either defaulting or causing a severe decline in discretionary spending. The former is bad for the banks, and the latter is bad for the entire economy. This must be prevented in the future. There are a number of reasons why high combined-loan-to-value lending is a bad idea: it promotes speculation by shifting the risk to the lender, it encourages predatory borrowing where borrowers “put” the property to a lender, it promotes a high default rate because borrowers are not personally invested in the property, it discourages saving as it becomes unnecessary, and it artificially inflates prices as it eliminates a barrier to market entry. This last reason is one of the arguments used to get rid of downpayment requirements. The consequences of this folly became readily apparent once prices started to fall.

The payment must be measured against “30-year fixed-rate conventionally-amortizing mortgage regardless of the loan program used.” One of the worst loan programs of the Great Housing Bubble was the 2/28 ARM sold to large numbers of subprime borrowers. These borrowers were often qualified only on their ability to make the initial payment, and these borrowers were generally not capable of making the fully amortized payment when the loan reset after 2 years. Regulations like this would prevent a recurrence of the foreclosure tsunami triggered by the use of this loan program. It is also important to ban negative amortization because it would allow the loan balance to grow beyond the parameters of qualification, and it invites property speculation. Perhaps borrowers would not be concerned because they would receive debt forgiveness of the expanding balance. Lenders should be wary of these loans after their dismal performance in the deflation of the bubble, but institutional memory is short, and these loan programs could make a comeback if they are not specifically outlawed. This provision is careful to allow interest-only loans. They are still a high-risk product, but an argument can be made that these loans have a place, and there is no need to completely ban them. They will not have a future as an affordability product capable of driving up prices if the borrower must still qualify for the fully amortized payment.

For the lending provisions to have real impact, they must apply to both purchases and to refinances, thus the clause, “Loans for the purchase or refinance of residential real estate.” If the rules only applied to purchases, there would be a tremendous volume in refinances to circumvent the regulations. The caps on debt-to-income ratios, mortgage terms and combined-loan-to-value only have meaning if they are universally applied. The combined-loan-to-value standard is based on the “appraised value of the property at the time of sale or refinance.” The new appraisal methods will have impact here. It is important that the records need only be accurate as of the time of the transaction. If a borrower experiences a decline in their income or if the property declines in value to where they no longer meet the loan standard, it does not mean they can go petition for debt relief.

The regulations would only need to apply to loans “secured by a mortgage and recorded in the public record.” People can still borrow money from any source they wished as long as the lender knows they will not have any claim on residential real estate. If a lender wanted to issue a loan secured by real estate outside of the outlined standards, the borrower would not have to pay back that money. If a borrower has non-recorded debts which create a totally indebtedness requiring more than 36% of their gross income, they would not be eligible for a home equity loan even if they met the other qualifications. In such circumstances, it is better to limit borrowing than increase the probability of foreclosure.

Many states have non-recourse laws on their books. These laws serve to protect the borrower from predatory lending because the lender cannot go after other assets of the borrower in the event of default. In theory this should make lenders more conservative in their underwriting; however, the behavior of lenders in California, a non-recourse state, during the Great Housing Bubble was not conservative. These laws do serve to protect borrowers, and they should be enacted for purchase-money mortgages in all 50 states.

Since one of the goals of regulatory reform is to inhibit the behavior of irrational exuberance, the sales tactics of the National Association of Realtors should be examined and potentially come under the same restrictions as securities brokers through the Securities and Exchange Commission. After the stock market crash which helped precipitate the Great Depression, Congress created the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate the sales activities of securities brokers. There are strict regulations in place governing the representations made concerning the future performance of investment opportunities. These protections were put in place to protect the general public from the false promises made by stockbrokers in the 1920s which many naïve investors believed. The same analogy holds true for Realtors. The National Association of Realtors has launched numerous advertising campaigns suggesting erroneously that residential real estate is a great investment and appreciation will make home buyers wealthy. The mantra of all realtors is that house prices always go up. There are currently no limits to the distortions and outright lies realtors can tell prospective buyers with regards to the investment potential of residential real estate. Buyers are already prone to believe the fallacies of unlimited riches in real estate, and these fallacious beliefs lead to housing bubbles. Realtors should be prevented from making representations concerning the investment potential of real estate. Since the regulatory framework for this kind of regulation and oversight is already in place under the auspices of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Congress would merely need to make Realtors subject to these regulations in order to solve the problem.

The result of these restrictions will be that all homeowners will have at least 10% equity in their properties unless they have borrowed from a government program like the FHA where the combined-loan-to-value can exceed the limits. This equity cushion would buffer lenders from predatory borrowing and a huge increase in foreclosures if prices were to decline. Home equity in the United States has been declining since the mid 1980s, and it actually declined while prices rose during the Great Housing Bubble due to the rampant equity extraction. The lack of an equity cushion exacerbated the foreclosure problem as many homeowners who owed more on their mortgage than the house was worth simply stopped making payments and allowed the house to fall into foreclosure.